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Transgenderism in Don Quixote

By Hebe Dotson

Subscribers can catch up with Part Two | Part Three

If you were on a quest for examples of transgenderism in fiction, would your thoughts turn automatically to a 400-year-old masterpiece of European literature? Mine didn’t, but the TG tales were there for the serendipitous finding in Miguel de Cervantes’ The Adventures of Don Quixote, written around the dawn of the seventeenth century.

Alonso Quixano, an aging and somewhat deluded gentleman from a rural village, has immersed himself in medieval romances of chivalry, to the ruination of his brain. Believing himself to be of knightly quality if not yet actually a knight, he dresses himself in an ancient suit of rusty armor, dubs himself Don Quixote de la Mancha, and sets forth in search of adventure, fame, and honor.

Since a knight errant must have a squire, Don Quixote persuades one of his neighbors, an often-naive, sometimes-wise laborer named Sancho Panza, to join him. He promises Sancho that his service will be well-rewarded -- that he can expect to become the governor of an isle that the Don’s prowess will somehow win.

In a sense, Don Quixote is entirely a drag novel -- in the sense, that is, that the principal character uses costume as a means of assuming a rightful identity far more interesting and exciting than his everyday self. To be sure, he doesn’t see himself as being in costume; he’s just dressed in an appropriate manner for his true station in life. Many of the lesser characters disguise themselves as well, and several of these transformations involve crossdressing.

Don Quixote is a long but basically humorous story, carrying its hero through a series of improbable escapades and adventures. Transgenderism is an element in each of the six episodes summarized below. The book is divided into two parts, with 52 chapters in Part 1 and 74 in Part 2. I have used J. M. Cohen’s translation in the Penguin Classics edition first published in 1950.

An Attempt to Save Don Quixote from Himself

(Part 1, Chapters XXVI– XXIX)

Two of Don Quixote’s friends from his native village, a priest and a barber, heard stories about the old man’s outlandish adventures and grew concerned about his increasing madness. They devised a scheme to entice him home, where they hoped to find a way to cure him of his delusions. The priest would disguise himself as a damsel errant and the barber would be the damsel’s squire. The damsel, wearing a mask and claiming to be in distress, would ask Don Quixote for a boon, something no true man of chivalry could deny to a woman seeking help. The boon would be the Don’s promise to go wherever she led him, to avenge a wrong done to her by a wicked knight. He would also have to promise not to require her to remove her mask until her vengeance had been gained. Once these binding promises had been secured, the priest-as-damsel would be able to lead Don Quixote back to his home.

Now the conspirators had to obtain their disguises. They borrowed a dress and a head-dress from the landlady of the inn at which they were staying, giving her the priest’s cassock for security. The priest’s disguise was almost certain to fool Don Quixote, but how was the barber to avoid recognition? He resourcefully converted an ox tail into a long beard.

The priest put on the landlady’s dress but decided not to have his head dressed like a woman’s; in lieu of this, he wore his nightcap. For a mask, he used one of his black taffeta garters to cover his forehead and the other to conceal his face and beard. He then mounted his mule side-saddle, like a woman.

The two plotters were barely out of the inn’s courtyard before the priest had second thoughts. It was wrong for a churchman to dress as a woman, he decided, no matter for how noble a reason, and he insisted upon swapping disguises with the barber. With some reluctance, the barber agreed to the amended plan, but he refused to wear the damsel disguise until the next day, when they would reach the place where Don Quixote was staying.

Before they could begin to execute their plan, the priest and the barber encountered a peasant lad washing his feet -- his delicate feet, as white as alabaster -- in a stream. When he was done, he took a cloth from under his cap to dry his feet -- and it must have been quite a cap, for in addition to the cloth it concealed enough golden hair to hide the youth’s entire body, except for his feet. Her feet, of course, for this much hair could only belong to a maiden in disguise.

Dorothea, the maiden, was the daughter of wealthy parents. She had been seduced by a caddish nobleman who had promised to marry her but had abandoned her instead. She had dressed as a youth for greater ease in roaming the 17th-century world in search of her erstwhile lover. After all hands had exchanged stories, she removed a magnificent gown and jewelry from her bundle and took over the role of distressed damsel. As such, she easily persuaded Don Quixote to grant her the boon that would have enabled her to lead him home, had a variety of plot complications not sent the story in several other directions.

A Joke Played on Don Quixote

(Part 2, Chapters XXXIV–XXXVI)

A knight errant must have a lady, an object of chaste and courtly love, to inspire his quest for honor and glory. Don Quixote’s great love was Aldonza Lorenzo, a strapping farm girl who lived in a neighboring village. To his deluded mind, she was the noble lady Dulcinea del Toboso, and all of his attempted great deeds were performed in her name.

In his wanderings, Don Quixote met a duke and duchess who had read Part 1 of his adventures and were well acquainted with his delusions, which they found highly amusing. They were delighted to encounter Don Quixote and his squire in the flesh, and immediately offered them hospitality.

The duke and duchess took pleasure in playing a number of elaborate pranks on their guests. In one of these, the devil and a troop of enchanters appeared, bringing with them a spellbound "Dulcinea" and instructions for Don Quixote on the means by which she could be released from her enchantment. Dulcinea was presented as a nymph, gorgeously apparelled in "countless veils of gold tissue." Her face was veiled, but she could be seen to be both beautiful and young. The principal enchanter, who said that his name was Merlin, announced the disenchantment cure: it required that Sancho Panza give himself three thousand, three hundred lashes on his bare buttocks, a prescription that the squire was unwilling to take.

On hearing his objections, Dulcinea threw back the thin golden veil that had covered her face, revealing "a countenance which seemed to all excessively lovely." Erupting in rage, she gave poor Sancho a powerful tongue-lashing. How could he be so inconsiderate as to place his comfort ahead of her release from enchantment? She was wasting the bloom of her youth in the enchanted guise of a peasant girl; if she appeared beautiful to them, it was because the enchanters had made her appear so in hopes of softening Sancho’s hard heart. She must be set free so that her true beauty could be revealed and she could be returned to her proper position as a grand lady.

After extensive and vigorous persuasion by Don Quixote and the duke and duchess, Sancho Panza finally agreed to give himself the full number of lashes -- not at once, but soon. With that, Sancho was embraced and praised and the procession of enchanters resumed its mysterious journey.

The duke and duchess found the entire charade highly amusing. It had been contrived by one of their stewards, who had played the part of Merlin, and the lovely Dulcinea had been one of their page boys.

To Be Continued

Hebe Dotson would love to have your comments and criticisms -- you can e-mail her at hebedotson@tgforum.com.



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